More Rain and Cleaning the Closet of Doom

Happy Monday! Is anyone else dragging today like I am? Not sure if it is the weather--hot and humid, or the fact that I didn't get very much sleep last night but I am just dragging today. Maybe it was the busyness of the weekend? I don't know. 

Friday night I did, in fact, order takeout for Bill and I at a local Greek and Indian restaurant that recently reopened. They have been closed for over a year, while the owner went back to India to get married. We got takeout from there to celebrate the 16th anniversary of Bill proposing to me. While Bill was heading out to pickup our food, it starting storming horribly. And we had a tornado warning as well! Thankfully, he got home shortly after the sirens went off. We did not get a tornado, but we did get almost 3 inches of rain in less than an hour. 

You can see the rain just pouring off my neighbor's porch roof! 

Ponding and flooding in the yard

After he got home and dried off, we enjoyed our yummy dinner! I got a chicken kabob platter and he had a lamb gyro! Both dishes were super yummy!

Chicken Kabob Platter (that rice underneath was so tender and cooked perfectly!)

Bill and his lamb gyro. He said it was one of the best he has had. 

Saturday, I ended up watching my niece and nephew so that my parents could go to two graduation parties. I figured they would enjoy them better if they didn't have to take Lacie and Ethan. It was rainy and stormy most of the morning/afternoon, so we played games and hung out here. Saturday evening I ended up going to bed early. I guess I was tired.

Sunday, I decided that I needed to tackle the closet of doom! I have mentioned this nemesis before on my blog and it was time to tackle it again. The main reason was to get all my heath and beauty stuff organized so that I could see any gaps that I need to fill in (I am doing this so that I can be more prepared if we have another stay at home order mandated. Ohio's numbers are increasing daily and all evidence is that it is NOT because of more testing. My gut tells me that we will have another one sooner rather than later, so I want to be more prepared.) This is what I started with: 

And here is the finished product:

I ended up with 6 trash bags and a box full of stuff to donate and 2 bags of trash. I also posted the kids' dollhouse and stuff that goes with it on Facebook for anyone for free and a friend came and picked it up for her single mom neighbor who has a 2 year old! Win, win in my book. Also, I came out ahead in another way as I found a 12 pack of toilet paper, a half a can of disinfecting wipes that I didn't know that I had and a nickel! I call that a win. Cleaning that out took most of my day. I wish I could say that I had help, but I was watched most of the time to make sure I was doing it right! LOL

Last night I made cheesesteaks for dinner and they were super yummy! Not necessarily good for my diet but good non-the-less. Speaking of my diet... by counting calories and exercising (walking) I lost 4 pounds last week! I think my body knows because I have been craving chocolate and all the junk food the last 24 hours. Gotta stay strong. 

Today, I have taken the kids on a 2 mile walk and have started laundry. I might clean the bathrooms here in a bit. Dinner is pretty much sorted as I have a whole chicken cooking in the crockpot. Easy peasy. I also want to make a Walmart and Aldi list for either tomorrow night or Wednesday night...thankfully the only need that I found for our health and beauty stuff was deodorant for Bill and adult toothpaste. (I have 3 tubes of kids Colgate, and only one backup tube for us.) I think my grocery run is going to be mostly produce and milk. 

What are you up to today? Is it hot and humid where you are? Hope everyone has a good week! 

Stop and See the Flowers

Happy Sunday! I used to do a post of Nature Photos on Sundays as a way to bring some calm to the end of the weekend and to the beginning of the new week. I am not a great photographer, but do enjoy capturing moments of nature when I am out walking or out on adventures with the family. So I have decided to bring back this feature. 

Sunday is meant to be a day of rest and relaxation and one of the ways that I rest is to spend time in nature. I try to spend a least a little bit of time in nature each week. I have decided that I will use Sundays to share the photos of my nature adventures each week just as a way to relax and share the beauty that is God's creation with all. I hope you enjoy!

The following photos were taken June 25 at the Children's Garden.  

This was taken June 26 at Wolf Run Park on one of the trails. 

Have a great week! 

Children's Garden, Riverside Park and a Storybook Trail

Happy Friday!! Today the sun is out and it is HOT here at our house. We have taken advantage of the sunshine the last 2 days.
Yesterday, I took the kids to the Children's Garden here in town. Sadly I think they have all outgrown it 😔☹. We only spent about 20 minutes there. I did take some flower pictures though (which I will share on Sunday.) 

After the Children's Garden, we made a quick stop at a farm market so that I could get tomatoes, cucumbers and green onions. Then it was off to Riverside Park to play on the playground. There were only 3 other kids on the playground when we arrived so it was nice and open for the kids to play on. 

Today's adventure took us to Wolf Run park where our local park district along with the public library has installed a storybook trail. They have the pond trail set up with pages from a book along the path that the kids (and adults) can read as they walk. (The plan is to change the book out quarterly.) The book they featured now is "Fiona the Hippo" which is illustrated by Richard Cowdrey (who is a resident of our county). According to Amazon.com, the summary of the book is: Fiona, the famous hippo from the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens, was not expected to live. She was born prematurely, at only 29 pounds. But her inspiring story of spunk and determination captured hearts around the world. Fiona the Hippo, by New York Times bestselling artist Richard Cowdrey (Bad Dog, Marley) tells the story of smart, sassy, and fearless Fiona. Readers will cheer on Fiona as she defeats the odds and becomes a happy, healthy hippopotamus. It is a really cute story with really cute illustrations. The kids enjoyed reading the story as we walked! 

After the story, we walked around the pond and then headed back to our van as it was HOT outside.

We headed out to pick up lunches from the school and then home to the A/C to have lunch and chill out. 

Not sure yet what my weekend plans are. I know I want to clean the upstairs closet of doom and get rid of stuff. It is supposed to be pretty stormy here tomorrow so that may be tomorrow's project. Also not sure what we are going to do about date night this week-- might do it tonight as it is 16 year anniversary of Bill proposing to me at Jacob's Field in Cleveland or might wait and do it tomorrow night. I will have to see what Bill wants to do. 

For now, I need to go load the dishwasher from the lunch and breakfast dishes and go flip laundry. 

Do you have any fun plans this weekend? Have you ever been on a "Storybook" trail before?  

5+ miles in less than 24 hours!

Happy Wednesday! Yesterday afternoon the rain finally stopped for a bit and the sun came out. I decided that I needed to go walk and Bill wanted to walk, so we packed up the kids and headed out to walk on the Kokosing Gap Trail in Howard. (This is the same trail that the boys and I walked on Monday, just a different section. 😉) The weather was great with nice sunshine and a nice breeze blowing. 

This section of the path has a stone archway that was built in 1874. It is really a beautiful piece of history and so glad that they incorporated it into the path. They finally added an historical marker to it earlier this year. 

This portion of the path has some farms that border it if you go about 1.5 miles down the path or so. We saw an alpaca and then when we turned around and came back we saw cows in the same field.

This portion of the path also has a playground that the boys like to play on so we did that after we walked 3.1 miles 😃

After we got home, I made dinner, everyone got showers and we watched an episode of Season 1 of "The Masked Singer." (We watched Season 3 this year each week as it went live and loved the show, so we are going back and watching Season 1 and 2 this Summer as it is on Hulu.) 

This morning we got a surprise as the sun was out!! So I took the kids back out the Kokosing Gap Trail... this time back out to Gambier, so that we could walk another part of the path! The weather was GORGEOUS-- temps in the low 70s, relatively low humidity and best of all SUNSHINE!!! We ended up walking 2.12 miles!

After the walk, the kids played on the train which they all love climbing on. Ben even climbed up to the top part today! 

Now, I am taking a moment to rest, as my body is TIRED from all the walking, before making dinner and figuring out calories. I am on a diet as I weighed myself last week and the number was frightful! So I have decided that counting calories is the way to go for now. The last few days have been an eye opener as to how much I was snacking here and there between meals and how much those calories add up! 

Well my dryer just stopped so I need to go flip laundry and then start on dinner! 

Hope everyone is having a good day!